CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Senior
Alexandra D'Ascenzo won in both singles and doubles, but the women's tennis team was handed a 4-3 loss by host Harvard in the first match of the ECAC Indoor Championships on Saturday at the Murr Center.
D'Ascenzo and classmate
Marika Cusick clinched the match's first point with a 6-4 win in No. 1 doubles. Juniors
Madison Stevens and
Lizzie Stewart recorded the other doubles victory for the Big Red at the No. 3 position.
The Big Red ultimately needed to split the singles matches, but came up short in two of the three matches that went to three sets. Junior
Priyanka Shah avoided a third set in her match at No. 3, rolling to win the final five games of the second set to give Cornell its second point of the day. D'Ascenzo then rode an early break in the third set to a 2-6, 6-1, 6-2 win at No. 2, but Harvard won the day's other two three-set matches to end a three-match losing streak to Cornell — including a pair of 4-3 decisions last year.
Cornell will take on Princeton (4-3), the tournament's top seed and the defending Ivy League champion, at 9 a.m. Sunday in the event's final day of competition. The Tigers recorded a 4-2 victory over Columbia on Saturday afternoon.
HARVARD 4, CORNELL 3
Singles
1. Erica Oosterhout (H) def.
Marika Cusick, 3-6, 6-2, 7-5
2.
Alexandra D'Ascenzo (C) def. June Lee, 2-6, 6-1, 6-2
3.
Priyanka Shah (C) def. Jenna Friedel, 6-4, 7-5
4. Irene Lu (H) def.
Mariko Iinuma, 6-3, 6-2
5. Annika Ringblom (H) def.
Lizzie Stewart, 5-7, 6-3, 6-1
6. Natasha Gonzalez (H) def.
Ananya Dua, 6-1, 6-2
Doubles
1. Cusick/D'Ascenzo (C) def. Lee/Oosterhout, 6-4
2. Iinuma/Shah (C) vs. Gonzalez/Lu, DNF (5-4)
3.
Madison Stevens/Stewart (C) def. Ringblom/Sabrina Xiong, 6-2